SUMMER FILM SERIES
featuring the winners from the 2009 festival
June 13-August 29
Kent Town Hall Kent, Connecticut
buy tickets night of show
for advance tickets email tickets@kentfilmfestival.org <http://www.kentfilmfestival.org/tickets@kentfilmfestival.org>
or call 203.681.5929
all tickets $10
*filmmaker/cast/crew/ present after FIRST showing for Q & A,
you are welcome to come early if you plan on going to the second screening.
June 13*6:00 & 9:00
Against the Wind/Dan Masucci
10:00, USA/Short
Getting old is the most unexpected certainty. In the twilight of his life, Ned reflects on his past, his remaining years, and discovers how his role in life has changed. Against the Wind is a sentimental film that shows the old truly are young at heart and that universal emotions live within us all.
Cosmic Legos/Gabe Mayhan
22:00, USA/Short
Shawn is the kind of guy who can’t leave anything to fate. Julie is happy to go with the flow. Neither knows the other exists, but these two very different people share the same dream in this movie about a small bar were fate and love intersect.
The Crimson Mask/Elias Plagianos
86:00, USA/Audience Choice
The Crimson Mask is a modern day parable that takes its viewers on a dramatic thrill ride. Robert Clohessy, Josh Burrow, and Chrishell Stause headline a cast of veteran actors who breathe life into the graphic world of the crimson mask - a world where greed, lust, pride, anger and envy force two men into a deadly ritual of redemption.
June 27*/6:00 & 9:00
Mirror Mirror/Valerie Champagne
14:00, USA/Student
Ten year-old Tanya tries to save her dying father by bargaining with a demon in her bathroom mirror.
Only Love/Lev Polyakov
15:00 USA/Student/Animation
‘Only Love’ is a tragicomedy about a Dictator, a Rebel, and Love. It is a darkly humorous tale of a dictator facing the ghosts of his past misdeeds, a man’s eternal search for love, and the terrible price one sometimes has to pay for it.
Freezer Burn/Charles Hood
94:00, USA/Screenwriting
A scientist falls for his wife’s 14-year-old art student and, using the technology from his research, freezes himself to align his age with hers.
July 11*/6:00 & 9:00
Persephone/Gwyghar Bratton
18:45, USA/Experimental
“Persephone” is a visual retelling of the classic greek myth of Persephone using masks, puppets, and original music to express the story. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of Fertility and abundance. She was kidnapped by Hades, god of the dead, and taken into the Underworld. Upon discovering the loss of her daughter, Demeter made the earth barren, threatening to starve mankind unless her daughter was returned to her. Persephone could only return if she had not eaten any food of the dead. Having eaten six seed from a pomegranate Persephone divides her time spending six months in the land of the living and six months in the world of the dead, causing the seasons to change. “Persephone” is a visual re-imagining of this traditional Greek myth using masks, puppets, and original music to emphasize the films themes of life, death, and resurrection.
Long Journey Home/Billie Mintz
7:00, Canada/Animation
In a village that never knew sickness a boy is sent into the wilderness to find the cure to his illness. He returns from his great journey to a village that does not recognize him for the changes he has endured. They have no way to cope with his transformation or understand the message he brings back from his great journey. The boy is expelled from the village and forced to lead the rest of his life in a secluded wilderness. Until one day, much later, the village sends out a young warrior to find the Boy and bring him home. It is time. They are ready to hear his story. Are you ready to hear his story?
Route 30/John Putch
88:00, USA/Feature
3 interconnecting stories from South Central Penna. ‘Deer Hunters Wives’ tells of the frustrations of Civil War tour guide Mandy, who obsesses on Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed at the battle of Gettysburg. While her friend June struggles with an internet porn scheme to make extra money. ‘What I Believe’ focuses on a man who seeks the help of a Christian Scientist to heal his back pain and explain the Big Foot that chased him. ‘Original Bill’ is the story of a writer who buys a rural farmhouse hoping to find unique inspiration to write his novel. He is sidetracked by his Amish neighbor, who smokes, drinks & swears.
July 25*/6:00 & 9:00
Rescued /Peter Parlegreco
8:00, USA/Animation
A hand drawn journey to another planet.
Tabitha’s Aquarium/Jason Klein
31:00, USA/Cinematography
Tabitha, a self-proclaimed fish enthusiast, is convinced that her ‘touch’ is lethal after her mother, pet fish and plant unexpectedly die following contact. Consequently she dons a pair of latex gloves and finds work in a taxidermy studio where the risk of killing anything else is minimal. Yet just as Tabitha begins to relax and discover the joy in restoring dead fish, tragedy strikes again and ultimately forces her to choose between her isolating phobia and a budding relationship with Wade, the quirky owner of Living Dead Taxidermy. Content.
Love Conquers Paul /Colin Bannon
90:00, USA/Feature
Paul leaves nothing to chance, to the point of forcing serendipitous encounters on mysterious women he feels a connection to.
August 8*/6:00 & 9:00
Lost In America/Ian Kennedy
48:00, USA/Documentary
‘Lost in America’ follows a struggling Brooklyn writer/singer trying to escape feelings of displacement and isolation in a neighborhood he has called home his entire life. A poetic urban western.
The Twenty/Chopper Bernet
92:00, USA/Cinematography
Carty has struggled with his drinking and the blackouts that attend it for as long as he can remember. Now sober, he attempts to pull himself out of the gloom and into a more normal life. But when he discovers a message written on a twenty-dollar bill an obsession begins. An obsession that leads him on a journey into a Lynchian landscape of shame, rage, and pain. A journey that forces him to reflect on his own life and, perhaps, to catch sight of the shadowy person he has imprisoned for all these years in his drunken state of mind. But will the experience of looking at the man in the mirror set him free or send him over the edge into never ending darkness?
August 15*/6:00 & 9:00
Crushing Pennies/Ryan Casey
32:20, USA
Crushing Pennies is a film about a married couple, Irene and Gabe, who find their relationship to be claustrophobic. As a way to vent, they begin to imagine that other people are interested in them and start to lead delusional lives. Their delusions then become shared and there are characters who both main characters interact with as though they were real. These delusions begin to get the best of their psyches as they even begin to pick up the vices of these imagined characters. They finally decide to visit a marriage counselor, who figures out how to solve the problem in a very original and interesting way.
The Finger Lakes/Chip Leonard_John Balis
90:00, USA/Soundtrack
Les is a man in the throes of a traumatic event. No longer able to distinguish fantasy from reality, his erratic actions bring him to the brink of his own destruction. Frustrated by his eccentric behavior, Les’ wife, Bev, presses Les to conform and pushes him over the edge. Les’ violent reaction leaves the countryside in shambles. Buoyed by director James Leonard’s accomplished direction, John Freeman presents a comic, yet insightful performance of man lost in the limbo between reality and the netherworld, taunted by a trio of advocates. Motivational speaker, Mike Camby (Mike Landry) excels at mixing inspiration with the sinister. Even his courteous and affable portraits have a peculiar, unpredictable edge. Big Jim (Tom Epstein) lures us through the world of quirky fisherman, casting for life’s glory and reeling in its disillusions. Supported by John Epperson’s masterful performance as an avenging angel, “The Fingerlakes” leads us through a maze of high-pressure marketing tactics, cable newscasters desperate for the story that will lead to a coveted anchor spot, and murder for profit.
August 29*/6:00 & 9:00
On Paper Wings/Ilana Sol
67:00, USA/Documentary
In 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb claimed the lives of the only people killed on the continental U.S. as the result of enemy action during WWII. Forty years later, the decision to fold a thousand paper cranes would unite the Japanese and American civilians affected by this incident.
The World Was Ours/Mira Van Doren
58:00, USA/Documentary
The World Was Ours is a documentary dedicated to the memory of Jewish Vilna. It draws on a large collection of video interviews with dozens of survivors and scholars, as well as excerpts from diaries, letters, poems, newspaper articles, and other contemporary accounts. Archival photographs and footage visualize the story of this remarkable community. A voice-over narration by award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin weaves the many elements into a single story. Archival music evokes the spirit of the times and is supplemented by specially recorded performances of Yiddish and Polish works.
*filmmaker/cast/crew present at show for Q & A to follow screening